How is a re-engineered psychedelic helping to treat depression in rodents? What have we learned about the Coronavirus, one year on? Find out in ScienceSeeker's picks of the best posts for the week of Dec 7 - Dec 13 2020 #SciSeekPicks #SciComm.

In this week's best in the business from the world of science news, explore the surprisingly complex physics behind sandcastles, and discover how traditional remedies put many endangered species further at risk. ScienceSeeker editors' favourite posts within their respective areas of interest and expertise also cover many other important and exciting topics. Why not have a read, inform yourself, and indulge your scientific curiosity?

• Chemists re-engineer a psychedelic to treat depression and addiction in rodents by Robert F. Service for Science magazine.

A drug called Ibogaine is a pretty knarly hallucinogen and can cause heart-attacks. But re-engineered, it's showing promise in treating rodent models of depression.
Credit: Nick Harris via Flickr (CC-BY-ND 2.0)

• What Science has learned about the Coronavirus one year on by Jeffery DelViscio and Britt Glaunsinger for Scientific American.
• Physicists solve 150-year-old mystery of equation governing sandcastle physics by Jennifer Ouellette for Ars Technica.
• Astronomers spot ancient supernova remnants in large Magellanic cloud by Sci-News.com
• Does quantum mechanics rescue free will? by Philip Ball at Homunculus.
• Are singularities real? by Sabine Hossenfelder at Backreaction.
• Exploitation of mammals for traditional remedies by Steven Novella for Science-based Medicine.
• Electric rays to help us map the ocean floor  by Adam Phillips for It Ain't Magic.
• Hi, robot: Why robotics and language need each other by Matthew Hutson for Knowable magazine.
• Wind farm noise may subtly impact sleep, scientists say by Miklos Bolza for Lab Down Under.
• Science, people, and surviving in the time of a global pandemic by Alex Bond for The Lab and Field.
• It's time to track city sewage for emerging diseases, not just COVID-19 by Lauren Sara McKee for Massive Science.
• How a new SARS-CoV-2 wastewater testing kit is helping campuses reopen by Johanna Lee for Promega Connections.
• Coronavirus: More scared or less scared? by Rose Rimbler and Wendy Zukerman for Gimlet at Science Vs.

To indulge your curiosity even more, follow us on Facebook or Twitter for honourable mentions of great posts that didn't quite make our #SciSeekPicks list this week. Want #SciSeekPicks to help satisfy your scientific curiosity every week? Sign up here for regular notification emails.

Check back next week for more great picks